A THOUSAND WORDS - Alex Waterhouse-Hayward's blog on pictures, plants, politics and whatever else is on his mind.

Sunshine at Wreck

Friday, May 05, 2017

I am writing this on a cool and rainy May 3, 2017. Even one
day of semi-sun during a rainy week is not enough to take away that melancholy that
consumes me on cloudy days.

Our perennials are not as affected by rainy day melancholy
in the spring. My shade tolerant hostas (never use the incorrect term “shade
loving”) are doing just fine. In the first weeks of May as they unfurl their
leaves one cannot but notice their fresh pristine beauty that may suggest that Roman
concept of the Vestal Virgins the
priestesses of the Roman goddess of the hearth Vesta.

By the end of May my 27 roses need sun.

While experiencing this melancholy of no sun I perused my
old negatives of my times in the late 70s at Wreck Beach. My Rosemary never
quite understood my obsession in going there an exposing my nude body to sun.
In fact I read quite a lot there and made some very good friends. It was in
Wreck Beach where I first had contact with cartoonist/animator Marv Newland and
free-lance writer Daniel Wood.

Hosta 'Party Favor' May 3 2017

The many beautiful women I met there all gladly posed for my
camera, perhaps understanding, how inept I was at it. Thanks to them I learned
lots.

One friend, a lead singer of a lovely Vancouver pop band
suggested I try some of his excellent hash. I did and then found myself
incapable of any movement. Worse still, in my attempts to say anything, all
that came out from my semi paralyzed lips was a stutter. That was my first and
last time in smoking any kind of weed that was not tobacco. And tobacco I last
smoked (a pipe) some 20 years ago.

Hosta 'PlatinumTiara' May 3 2017

Those sunny and lazy days at Wreck Beach gave me plenty of
time to reflect on my life as a married man with two daughters. It gave me the
opportunity to think out my ever increasing assignments for magazines.
Illustrating an article with a photograph or photograph (in some cases before
the article is written is one of the most satisfying of pleasures. It is one
that I miss now that I am obsolete – redundant & retired. I would even go
as far as stating that thanks to Wreck Beach I became a good photographer of
illustration.

Now in 2017 I have no desire to sun myself except on some
holiday where I would probably want to escape the sun I a museum. Now in 2017 I
have come to appreciate the undraped female not on a sandy beach (where I
learned the craft) but in my smallish studio with its reduced options. In the
studio my approach has to be one that is not of those Roman vestalvirgins but more on the Greek and thus
Platonic concept of the essence – the essence that makes a woman be that.

Here are pictures of the laid back and delightfully beautiful
Lorien. She was my friend and I learned a lot from her. I remember with some
element of distaste and disapproval that the former Playboy scout (those who
know who he was will know his name, I will not name him here) had to adhere to
the then (and now?) standards of female beauty. He would parade naked (I gave
him that) while wearing shoes and socks and with a Hasselblad around his neck. He
would then pick possible Playboy beauties (who often had a little dog) and
approach them and ask them about their cute dogs. Lorien did not fit the mold. Her
lovely breasts had only a vestige of nipples and the breasts themselves flopped
a tad. He would say hi to her but keep on in his search.

Hosta 'Liberty' May 3 2017

To me it is interesting to note that the two colour photographs
here of Lorien are in decided out of focus. I cannot here give the excuse that
I was stoned. I wasn’t. Those two pictures were just poorly focused.